Battle of Aubers

Last updated

Battle of Aubers
Part of the Second Battle of Artois on the Western Front of the First World War
Aubers Ridge and Festubert, 1915.jpg
Aubers Ridge and Festubert, 1915
Date9 May 1915
Location
south of Armentières, France
50°36′N2°49′E / 50.600°N 2.817°E / 50.600; 2.817
Result German victory
Belligerents

Flag of the United Kingdom.svg  United Kingdom

Flag of the German Empire.svg  German Empire
Commanders and leaders
Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Sir John French Flag of the German Empire.svg Crown Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria
Casualties and losses
9 May: 11,161 9 May: 902 (partial)

The Battle of Aubers (Battle of Aubers Ridge) was a British offensive on the Western Front on 9 May 1915 during the First World War. The battle was part of the British contribution to the Second Battle of Artois, a Franco-British offensive intended to exploit the German diversion of troops to the Eastern Front. The French Tenth Army was to attack the German 6th Army north of Arras and capture Vimy Ridge, preparatory to an advance on Cambrai and Douai. The British First Army, on the left (northern) flank of the Tenth Army, was to attack on the same day and widen the gap in the German defences expected to be made by the Tenth Army and to fix German troops north of La Bassée Canal.

Contents

The attack was an unmitigated disaster on the part of the British. No ground was gained, no tactical advantage was gained, and they suffered more than ten times the number of casualties as the Germans. To make matters worse the battle precipitated a political crisis back home, which became the Shell Crisis of 1915.

Background

The battle was the initial British component of the combined Anglo-French offensive known as the Second Battle of Artois. [lower-alpha 1] The French commander-in-chief, Joseph Joffre, had enquired of Sir John French, commander of the British Expeditionary Force, if British units could support a French offensive into the Douai Plain around late April or early May 1915. The immediate French objectives were to capture the heights at Notre Dame de Lorette and Vimy Ridge. [2] The British First Army was further north, between La Bassée and Ypres in Belgium. It was decided that the British forces would attack in the southern half of their front line, near the village of Laventie. The objective, in the flat and poorly drained terrain, was Aubers Ridge an area of slightly higher ground 2–3 km (1.2–1.9 mi), containing the villages of Aubers, Fromelles and Le Maisnil. The area had been attacked in the Battle of Neuve Chapelle two months earlier. [3] The battle marked the second use of specialist Royal Engineer tunnelling companies, when men of 173rd Tunnelling Company tunnelled under no man's land and planted mines under the German defences, to be blown at zero hour. [4]

Prelude

German defensive measures

The Battle of Neuve Chapelle had shown that one breastwork was insufficient to stop an attack and the fortifications opposite the British were quickly augmented. Barbed-wire entanglements were doubled and trebled and 5 ft (1.5 m) deep breastworks were increased to 15–20 ft (4.6–6.1 m) broad, with traverses and a parados (a bank of earth behind the trench to provide rear protection). Each battalion had two machine-guns and these were emplaced at ground level, set to sweep no man's land from flanking positions. A second breastwork (the Wohngraben) begun as part of a general strengthening of the Western Front earlier in the year, about 200 yd (180 m) behind the front line was nearly finished. The Wohngraben had dugouts underneath to accommodate 20–30 men and was connected to the front breastwork by communication trenches. Close to the front, the communication trenches were solidly built with concrete shelters and were ready to be used as flanking trenches against a breakthrough. The second line of defence was far enough back from the front line for shells falling on one not to affect the other and the front breastwork became a line of sentry-posts. The second line became the accommodation for the main garrison, which was to move forward during an attack to hold the front line at all costs. [5]

About 700–1,000 yd (640–910 m) back from the front breastwork, a line of concrete machine-gun posts known as the Stützpunktlinie had been built, about 1,000 yd (910 m) apart, as rallying points for the infantry if the front position was broken through. Opposite Rue du Bois, machine-gun posts were built at La Tourelle, Ferme du Bois (Apfelhof) and Ferme Cour d'Avoué (Wasserburg). Battalion frontages were held by two companies of about 280 men on a frontage of 800–1,000 yd (730–910 m), with one company in support 2,000 yd (1,800 m) to the rear and the fourth company in reserve another 2,000–4,000 yd (1.1–2.3 mi; 1.8–3.7 km) back. The new communication trenches were arranged so that the support companies could easily block a break-in from the flanks; most of the field artillery of 6–12 four-gun field batteries and several heavy batteries in each division, were on Aubers Ridge 2,500–4,000 yd (1.4–2.3 mi; 2.3–3.7 km) behind the front line, between Lorgies and Gravelin. [6] A second line of gun positions between La Cliqueterie Farm, Bas Vailly, Le Willy and Gravelin, about 2,500 yd (1.4 mi; 2.3 km) behind the forward battery positions, had been built so that the guns could be moved back temporarily, until enough reinforcements had arrived from Lille and La Bassée to counter-attack and reoccupy the front line. [7]

Battle

Intelligence about the work to improve German positions was not available or given insufficient attention where known. [8] No surprise was achieved because the British bombardment was insufficient to break the German wire and breastwork defences or knock out the German front-line machine-guns. German artillery and free movement of reserves were also insufficiently suppressed. [8] Trench layout, traffic flows and organisation behind the British front line did not allow for easy movement of reinforcements and casualties. British artillery and ammunition were in poor condition: the first through over-use, the second through faulty manufacture. [9] It soon became impossible to tell where British troops were and accurate artillery fire was impossible. [10]

Air operations

Three squadrons of the 1st Wing Royal Flying Corps (RFC) were attached to the First Army for defensive patrols for four days before the attack, to deter enemy reconnaissance. During the attack they were to conduct artillery observation and reconnaissance sorties and bomb German rear areas, railway junctions and bridges further afield. [11]

Aftermath

Analysis

The Royal Munster Fusiliers receiving absolution from their chaplain, Father Francis Gleeson prior to the battle The Last General Absolution of the Munsters at Rue du Bois.jpg
The Royal Munster Fusiliers receiving absolution from their chaplain, Father Francis Gleeson prior to the battle

The battle was an unmitigated disaster for the First Army. No ground was won and no tactical advantage gained. It is doubted if it had the slightest positive effect on assisting the main French attack 15 mi (24 km) to the south. [12] The battle was renewed slightly to the south, from 15 May as the Battle of Festubert. [13] In the aftermath of the Aubers Ridge failure, the war correspondent of The Times , Colonel Charles à Court Repington, sent a telegram to his newspaper highlighting the lack of high-explosive shells, using information supplied by Sir John French; The Times headline on 14 May 1915 was: "Need for shells: British attacks checked: Limited supply the cause: A Lesson From France". This precipitated a political scandal known as the Shell Crisis of 1915. [14]

Casualties

Hans von Haeften an official history editor of the Reichsarchiv recorded c. 102,500 French casualties from 9 May to 18 June,32,000 British casualties and 73,072 German casualties for the operations of the Second Battle of Artois. [15] The British Official Historian, James Edmonds recorded 11,619 men British casualties. [16] Edmonds wrote that the German Official History made little reference to the battle but in 1939 G. C. Wynne wrote that Infantry Regiment 55 had 602 casualties and Infantry Regiment 57 lost 300 casualties. [17] [lower-alpha 2]

Awards

Four Victoria Crosses were awarded for actions in the Battle of Aubers

Notes

  1. ↑ British Order of Battle: I Corps, 1st Division and 47th (1/2nd London) Division. IV Corps 7th Division and 8th Division. Indian Corps, 3rd (Lahore) Division and 7th (Meerut) Division, First Wing, RFC. [1]
  2. ↑ Four time Wimbledon tennis champion Anthony Wilding from New Zealand, was one of the fatalities of the battle, killed on 9 May when a shell exploded on the roof of his dug-out. [18]

Footnotes

  1. ↑ James 1990, p. 7.
  2. ↑ Edmonds 1928, pp. 1–4.
  3. ↑ Edmonds 1928, pp. 6–8.
  4. ↑ Edmonds 1928, p. 31.
  5. ↑ Wynne 1976, pp. 43–44.
  6. ↑ Wynne 1976, pp. 44–45.
  7. ↑ Rogers 2010, p. 30.
  8. 1 2 Edmonds 1928, pp. 14–15.
  9. ↑ Edmonds 1928, pp. 33, 37.
  10. ↑ Edmonds 1928, p. 41.
  11. ↑ Edmonds 1928, p. 10.
  12. ↑ Edmonds 1928, pp. 37–41.
  13. ↑ Edmonds 1928, pp. 44–82.
  14. ↑ Holmes 2004, pp. 287–289.
  15. ↑ Haeften 1932, pp. 93, 96.
  16. ↑ Edmonds 1928, p. 39.
  17. ↑ Wynne 1976, p. 43.
  18. ↑ Myers 1916, p. 286.
  19. ↑ Edmonds 1928, p. 29.
  20. ↑ Edmonds 1928, p. 27.
  21. ↑ Edmonds 1928, p. 35.
  22. ↑ Edmonds 1928, p. 34.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Capture of Hill 60 (Western Front)</span> Battle of the Western Front during World War I

The Capture of Hill 60 took place near Hill 60 south of Ypres on the Western Front, during the First World War. Hill 60 had been captured by the German 30th Division on 11 November 1914, during the First Battle of Ypres. Initial French preparations to raid the hill were continued by the British 28th Division, which took over the line in February 1915 and then by the 5th Division. The plan was expanded into an ambitious attempt to capture the hill, despite advice that Hill 60 could not be held unless the nearby Caterpillar ridge was also occupied. It was found that Hill 60 was the only place in the area not waterlogged and a French 3 ft × 2 ft mine gallery was extended.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Loos</span> Offensive mounted on the Western Front during World War I

The Battle of Loos took place from 25 September to 8 October 1915 in France on the Western Front, during the First World War. It was the biggest British attack of 1915, the first time that the British used poison gas and the first mass engagement of New Army units. The French and British tried to break through the German defences in Artois and Champagne and restore a war of movement. Despite improved methods, more ammunition and better equipment, the Franco-British attacks were largely contained by the Germans, except for local losses of ground. The British gas attack failed to neutralize the defenders and the artillery bombardment was too short to destroy the barbed wire or machine gun nests. German tactical defensive proficiency was still dramatically superior to the British offensive planning and doctrine, resulting in a British defeat.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hawthorn Ridge Redoubt</span>

Hawthorn Ridge Redoubt was a German field fortification, west of the village of Beaumont Hamel on the Somme. The redoubt was built after the end of the Battle of Albert and as French and later British attacks on the Western Front became more formidable, the Germans added fortifications and trench positions near the original lines around Hawthorn Ridge. At 7:20 a.m. on 1 July 1916, the British fired a huge mine beneath the Hawthorn Ridge Redoubt. Sprung ten minutes before zero hour, the mine was one of 19 mines detonated on the first day of the Battle of the Somme. Geoffrey Malins, one of two official war cameramen, filmed the detonation of the mine. The attack on the redoubt by part of the 29th Division of VIII Corps was a costly failure.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Attack at Fromelles</span> 1916 British attack in support of the Battle of the Somme, First World War

The Attack at Fromelles 19–20 July 1916, was a military operation on the Western Front during the First World War. The attack was carried out by British and Australian troops and was subsidiary to the Battle of the Somme. General Headquarters (GHQ) of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) had ordered the First Army and Second Army to prepare attacks to support the Fourth Army on the Somme, 50 mi (80 km) to the south, to exploit any weakening of the German defences opposite. The attack took place 9.9 mi (16 km) from Lille, between the Fauquissart–Trivelet road and Cordonnerie Farm, an area overlooked from Aubers Ridge to the south. The ground was low-lying and much of the defensive fortification by both sides consisted of building breastworks, rather than trenches.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Second Battle of Artois</span> 1915 Allied offensive, World War I

The Second Battle of Artois from 9 May to 18 June 1915, took place on the Western Front during the First World War. A German-held salient from Reims to Amiens had been formed in 1914 which menaced communications between Paris and the unoccupied parts of northern France. A reciprocal French advance eastwards in Artois could cut the rail lines supplying the German armies between Arras and Reims. French operations in Artois, Champagne and Alsace from November–December 1914, led General Joseph Joffre, Generalissimo and head of Grand Quartier Général (GQG), to continue the offensive in Champagne against the German southern rail supply route and to plan an offensive in Artois against the lines from Germany supplying the German armies in the north.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Third Battle of Artois</span> Battle during the First World War

The Third Battle of Artois was fought by the French Tenth Army against the German 6th Army on the Western Front of the First World War. The battle included the Battle of Loos by the British First Army. The offensive, meant to complement the Second Battle of Champagne, was the last attempt that year by Joseph Joffre, the French commander-in-chief, to exploit an Allied numerical advantage over Germany. Simultaneous attacks were planned in Champagne-Ardenne to capture the railway at Attigny and in Artois to take the railway line through Douai, to force a German withdrawal from the Noyon salient.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Messines (1917)</span> Part of the Western Front in World War I

The Battle of Messines was an attack by the British Second Army, on the Western Front, near the village of Messines in West Flanders, Belgium, during the First World War. The Nivelle Offensive in April and May had failed to achieve its more grandiose aims, had led to the demoralisation of French troops and confounded the Anglo-French strategy for 1917. The attack forced the Germans to move reserves to Flanders from the Arras and Aisne fronts, relieving pressure on the French.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Festubert</span> Western Front battle of 1915 in World War I

The Battle of Festubert was an attack by the British army in the Artois region of France on the western front during World War I. The offensive formed part of a series of attacks by the French Tenth Army and the British First Army in the Second Battle of Artois (3 May – 18 June 1915). After the failure of the breakthrough attempt by the First Army in the attack at Aubers Ridge tactics of a short hurricane bombardment and an infantry advance with unlimited objectives, were replaced by the French practice of slow and deliberate artillery-fire intended to prepare the way for an infantry attack.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Neuve Chapelle</span> 1915 battle in the First World War

The Battle of Neuve Chapelle took place in the First World War in the Artois region of France. The attack was intended to cause a rupture in the German lines, which would then be exploited with a rush to the Aubers Ridge and possibly Lille. A French assault at Vimy Ridge on the Artois plateau was also planned to threaten the road, rail and canal junctions at La Bassée from the south as the British attacked from the north. The British attackers broke through German defences in a salient at the village of Neuve-Chapelle but the success could not be exploited.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Winter operations 1914–1915</span> Military operations during the First World War

Winter operations 1914–1915 is the name given to military operations during the First World War, from 23 November 1914 – 6 February 1915, in the 1921 report of the British government Battles Nomenclature Committee. The operations took place on the part of the Western Front held by the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), in French and Belgian Flanders.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Actions of the Hohenzollern Redoubt</span> 1915 engagement on the Western Front of World War I

The Actions of the Hohenzollern Redoubt took place on the Western Front in World War I from 13 to 19 October 1915, at the Hohenzollern Redoubt near Auchy-les-Mines in France. In the aftermath of the Battle of Loos, the 9th (Scottish) Division captured the strongpoint and then lost it to a German counter-attack. The British attack on 13 October failed and resulted in 3,643 casualties, mostly in the first few minutes. In the History of the Great War, James Edmonds wrote that "The fighting [from 13 to 14 October] had not improved the general situation in any way and had brought nothing but useless slaughter of infantry".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">I Corps (British India)</span> Military unit

The I Indian Corps was an army corps of the British Indian Army in the World War I. It was formed at the outbreak of war under the title Indian Corps from troops sent to the Western Front. The British Indian Army did not have a pre-war corps structure, and it held this title until further corps were created. It was withdrawn from the Western Front in December 1915 and reconstituted as I Indian Corps in Mesopotamia until the end of the war.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of La Bassée</span> Battle during the First World War

The Battle of La Bassée was fought by German and Franco-British forces in northern France in October 1914, during reciprocal attempts by the contending armies to envelop the northern flank of their opponent, which has been called the Race to the Sea. The 6th Army took Lille before a British force could secure the town and the 4th Army attacked the exposed British flank further north at Ypres. The British were driven back and the German army occupied La Bassée and Neuve Chapelle. Around 15 October, the British recaptured Givenchy-lès-la-Bassée but failed to recover La Bassée.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Pilckem Ridge</span>

The Battle of Pilckem Ridge was the opening attack of the Third Battle of Ypres in the First World War. The British Fifth Army, supported by the Second Army on the southern flank and the French 1reArmée on the northern flank, attacked the German 4th Army, which defended the Western Front from Lille northwards to the Ypres Salient in Belgium and on to the North Sea coast. On 31 July, the Anglo-French armies captured Pilckem Ridge and areas on either side, the French attack being a great success. After several weeks of changeable weather, heavy rain fell during the afternoon of 31 July.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Loss of the Kink Salient</span>

The Loss of the Kink Salient occurred during a local attack on 11 May 1916, by the 3rd Bavarian Division on the positions of the 15th (Scottish) Division. The attack took place at the west end of the Hohenzollern Redoubt near Loos, on the Western Front during the First World War. An unprecedented bombardment demolished the British front line, then specially trained German assault units rushed the survivors and captured the British front line and the second line of defence; British tunnellers were trapped in their galleries and taken prisoner.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hooge in World War I</span>

In World War I, the area around Hooge on Bellewaerde Ridge, about 2.5 mi (4 km) east of Ypres in Flanders in Belgium, was one of the easternmost sectors of the Ypres Salient and was the site of much fighting between German and Allied forces.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hohenzollern Redoubt</span> German strongpoint on the Western Front during the First World War

The Hohenzollern Redoubt was a strongpoint of the German 6th Army on the Western Front during the First World War, at Auchy-les-Mines near Loos-en-Gohelle in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region of France. Named after the House of Hohenzollern, the redoubt was fought for by German and British forces. Engagements took place from the Battle of Loos (25 September – 14 October 1915) to the beginning of the Battle of the Somme on 1 July 1916, including the action of the Hohenzollern Redoubt in 1915 and the British Attack at the Hohenzollern Redoubt from 2 to 18 March 1916.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Capture of Ovillers</span> British operation during the Battle of Albert

The Capture of Ovillers was a British local operation during the Battle of Albert, the name given by the British to the first two weeks of the Battle of the Somme. The village of Ovillers-la-Boisselle forms part of the small commune of Ovillers-la-Boisselle, about 22 mi (35 km) north-east of Amiens in the Somme department in Picardie in northern France. By 1916, the village was called Ovillers by the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) to avoid confusion with La Boisselle south of the road. To the south-west of Ovillers lies La Boisselle.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Actions of St Eloi Craters</span>

The Actions of St Eloi Craters from 27 March to 16 April 1916, were local operations in the Ypres Salient of Flanders, during the First World War by the German 4th Army and the British Second Army. Sint-Elooi is a village about 5 km (3.1 mi) south of Ypres in Belgium. The British dug six galleries under no man's land, placed large explosive charges under the German defences and blew them at 4:15 a.m. on 27 March. The 27th Division captured all but craters 4 and 5. The 46th Reserve Division counter-attacked but the British captured craters 4 and 5 on 30 March. The Canadian Corps took over, despite the disadvantage of relieving troops in action.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Capture of Wytschaete</span> Part of the Battle of Messines in World War I

The Capture of Wytschaete was a tactical incident in the Battle of Messines on the Western Front during the First World War. On 7 June, the ridge was attacked by the British Second Army; the 36th (Ulster) Division and the 16th (Irish) Division of IX Corps captured the fortified village of Wytschaete on the plateau of Messines Ridge, which had been held by the German 4th Army since the First Battle of Ypres.

References

Further reading

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.